In Case You Missed It: Weak Field of Candidates for Governor Leaves Democrats in Disarray

No front-runners emerge after nine months of campaigning

March 12, 2018

[Madison, WI] — Nine months into the race for governor and the Democrat field looks weak. The failure of Democrat candidates to gain traction is evidenced by their anemic fundraising, staff reorganizations, and increasingly hostile rhetoric as they each struggle for attention. While Governor Scott Walker has Wisconsin working, the flawed Democrats running for governor are offering nothing more than the failed policies of yesterday as they seek to take our state backward.

Read excerpts from the story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel below or read the full story online here.

Democratic field for Wisconsin governor is still a jumble with no clear front-runnerMilwaukee Journal SentinelJason SteinMarch 9, 2018

After nine months of campaigning and more than $1 million spent, the crowded Democratic field for governor has done little to clarify the race and nothing to thin it out.

State schools Superintendent Tony Evers remains the best known of the nine notable challengers to GOP Gov. Scott Walker, but since announcing six months ago Evers hasn’t picked up decisive momentum or lost a single rival. Meanwhile, jumbled along with him are eight more candidates who are hanging on and telling themselves — for now at least — that they can still be the one.

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Wisconsin now has nine notable Democratic gubernatorial candidates looking to consolidate enough support to be ready to take on Walker’s well-funded operation in November. The race is the most crowded statewide primary in at least a generation and, unlike many past races, it had yet to see a notable candidate drop out.

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But with the next set of campaign fundraising reports not due until July, there are few immediate chokepoints to force out candidates.

Zepecki, the Democratic consultant, thinks that few if any of the Democrats will be able to run television ads in more than two or three media markets or for more than a few weeks at the very end of the campaign.

“It is going to be a three-week campaign because I can’t imagine anyone having the resources to get on TV for longer than that,” Zepecki said.